I’m going to interpret my blog tagline – the beauty of dominant women – fairly liberally for this post. It’s not femdom related in the sexual sense, but it does relate very much to a strong dominant women. I’ve just spent an enjoyable evening re-watching the first few episodes of Prime Suspect starring Helen Mirren. It comes from a rich tradition of British crime series, which also includes such gems as Cracker and Wire in the Blood.
I have a love hate relationship with these kind of shows. I enjoy the genre and plot structure, but hate the sexual stereotypes they almost always portray. Sex workers are normally damaged powerless victims. The criminals are often sexually warped sadists whose only outlet is violent attacks. It’s certainly not a genre to look at for positive portrayals of BDSM. Despite that, the Prime Suspect series is redeemed by having the wonderful Helen Mirren in the leading role. She plays a strong no-nonsense female character who puts up with a lot of sexist bullshit from her colleagues while still figuring out the cases. It’s a real pleasure to watch such a talented actress sink her teeth into the role.
US TV has a tendency to remake and horribly screw-up British series. I’ve not seen the US version, but looking at some of the online video’s they seem to have repeated the trick here. What was a reserved and complex older female character, with a flinty inner core, has become a skirt-the-rules cop played by a conventionally attractive blonde with a classic in your face New York attitude. In other words, the same thing we’ve seen a million times before. The good news is that netflix has the original UK series available for streaming. I definitely recommend checking it out.
Photograph is of Helen Mirren from a Prime Suspect publicity shot. If you’re a fan of hers, then I also recommend watching Excalibur. It’s a brilliant version of the Arthurian legend featuring her in the role of Morgana.
Not to mention that Dame Helen is one sexy lady.
And what the hell is it with American studios that we take great Brit shows and dumb them the hell down, anyway?
Well I didn’t want my posts to seem one dimensional, and always focused on physical appearance, but yes. She is one hell of a sexy lady.
In some ways I can understand the desire to remake some British series. Police procedurals (for example) have a lot of cultural and legal baggage that might be a little hard to immediately understand for a prime time audience. What drives me nuts is the incredibly dumb way they translate them. It’s like they get a 30 second elevator pitch (female cop fights sexism) and simply run with whatever that is. Less a translation and more a rehash of the standard US dramas with a British title tacked on.
Thanks for the heads up; I shall be checking out “Prime Suspect” at Netflix.
Hope you enjoy it. I’m never sure how the language and cultural differences will translate outside the UK, but I think it’s at least worth taking a look.
-paltego